Aatrox

This build guide for Aatrox is for Top Lane. He does the fair majority of his damage through basic attacks and I consider him to be a melee carry. He is very survivable due to his healing much like Xin Zhao or Irelia and he is very similar to these heroes in design.

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Author / Skins

About the Author: Quas

Quas is from Maracaibo, Venezuela and dedicated his time to gaming, being a very competivive player. He is well known for his success in the Amateur scene and joined Team Curse in 2013 as the top lane player. He is commonly referred to as Quas the 'God', for his unbelievable mechanics, game understanding and reaction times. He is currently a player for Team Liquid.

Description and Role

Aatrox is in a similar role to Tryndamere, Xin Zhao and Jax. They would generally be classified as melee carries and at worst, disruptors. You tend to pick them to try to carry the game by lane dominance or jungle skirmishing. Aatrox has the uncanny ability to bait people into bad decisions with his massive healing through Blood Thirst and his passive, Blood Pact. Aatrox becomes a monster late game through all the free statistics he gets through his passive and his ultimate, so don't be afraid if the game's gonna be a long one. You're well equipped for a game that goes to six items. Generally you have two options going into the mid lane. If you are able to out duel anyone on the enemy team you can either opt to split push or be the front line of your team.

Lore

Aatrox is a legendary warrior, one of only five that remain of an ancient race known as the Darkin. He wields his massive blade with grace and poise, slicing through legions in a style that is hypnotic to behold. With each foe felled, Aatrox's seemingly living blade drinks in their blood, empowering him and fueling his brutal, elegant campaign of slaughter.The earliest tale of Aatrox is as old as recorded history. It tells of a war between two great factions remembered only as the Protectorate and the Magelords. Over time, the Magelords won a series of crushing victories, leaving them on the brink of obliterating their sworn enemy forever. On the day of their final confrontation, the Protectorate army found themselves outnumbered, exhausted, and poorly equipped. They braced for inevitable defeat.

Just when all hope seemed lost, Aatrox appeared among the ranks of the Protectorate. With but a few words, he urged the soldiers to fight to the last before throwing himself into battle. His presence inspired the desperate warriors. At first, they could only watch in awe as this unknown hero cleaved through their enemies, his body and blade moving in unison as if one being. Soon, the warriors found themselves imbued with a potent thirst for battle. They followed Aatrox into the fray, each fighting with the furious strength of ten until they had won a most unlikely victory.

Aatrox vanished after that battle, but the Protectorate army's newfound fury did not. Their surprising triumph led to many more until they were able to finally return home victorious. Their countrymen hailed them as heroes, but though they had saved their entire civilization from destruction, darkness lingered in the mind of each warrior. Something within them had changed. Over time, their memories of battle faded, only to be replaced with a grim revelation: their acts of heroism were, in fact, brutal atrocities committed by their own hands.

Tales like these appear among the myths of many cultures. If they are all to be believed, Aatrox's presence has changed the course of some of the most important wars in history. Though these stories remember him as a savior in dark times, Aatrox's true legacy may be a world filled with conflict and strife.

"Some fight for honor, some fight for glory. It matters only that you fight."―Aatrox

Hello Quas, i am an Aatrox main with over 500 games D1, and i play aatrox with hydra>zephyr>botrk>randuin>spiritvisage + Tabi and i win mostly every matchup i am against.

I think you should mention that flashQ is a really strong initiate, also with early hydra/tiamat your trading grows immensly! When you are snowballing and start with hydra, you can clear a jungle camp after pushing your lane nearly everytime, you can get around 250 farm at 20 minute mark with a perfect execution. To conpensate with the 3 damage item start you need to be really aware of the enemy jungler and you need to be sure to win top early, also i run ad reds, hp per level yellows, flat armor quints and mr blues ofc. I hope you reply to me with your thoughts, cheers!

I used to play aatrox a lot in last season and he is my favorite champion. I am new to LOL but reached plat 3 virtually with this champion. I sometimes play him as jungler and always maximize W and start with Q for buliding the attack speed. Also I think he can beat any toplane champions even jax if play well in very early game. It is really hard to find a good engage chance when countering player in your lever. But a tip for your guys is that also hit counterpicks when he is closer to you for example when they are trying to get our minions with switching your W wisely. First item for sure is Blade of the ruin king and then i will go tanky in the rest of the game. When you cant get Blade of the ruin king, make sure bulid a little bit of amor when countering AD for example Ka or riven. Last of wisper is an option but you can always have it when you are confident to survive in team fight. Other offensive items are just meanless in rank game according to my experience. Aatrox is heavliy relied on sustanability and defensive bulid to survive. His attack speed is so fast but champion itself is really squishy So ninja Tabi is vital. On of the cons for him is although for example i can beat tanky top such as Renekton , Shen, Mundo even Shy(very tricky one). In the later game, the usefulness of these champions are inherently outweighted the usefulness of Aatrox, so how much you can limit these champions is the key when you play Aatrox. The essence of such champion is combo . When your Q failed , just back off and use your E to slow your enemy. Dont lose your mind to engage even if your Q failed because AD players including me are normally very aggressive and emotional ! Every hit of aatrox is important to beat your enemy and always stacked your W up to 3 to hit enemy because your enemy is not a fool and will not stay close to you at most of the time.

English is not my first language so hope it is readable for people and welcome to make comments so we can explore more about this cool champion.

I agree, 2 lifesteal quints are pretty good if you start with doran's blade, and i've been experimenting with hydra rush instead of BotrK and I like it a lot, even more than BotrK against tanky people.

I hate aatrox. i was playing lucian, i was killing him with my ignite up,after i killed him and he activated his passive. and i was OOM with no spells other than ignite when i was getting away from him. and he Q's into our tower,i ignite him before the tower gets the killing blow and i get a kill like a boss,lol!

I don't usually complain abut builds on here after all you guys know why more about the game then me im sure but the fact that you don't have spirit visage on this build bothers me so much it isn't even funny. I've been playing him consistently in normal and ranked games and in normal I have been taking him even if im countered to get a feel for hi and I gotta say spirit visage is straight up core in my build. I haven't seen anything aside from blade of the ruined king that is more important on him(I get blade first) so I have to ask why don't you have it listed? the cdr health passive and mr are almost needed on him.

I also run him 21/9/0 my marks ar att dmg and quints are life steal and I do very well even against those people others say are counter picks. I haven't had a chance to play him against your listed counters yet however. I also level his e first for both control and dmg then w for sustain. once again yall know more then me but I gotta know why no spirit visage